Tales of triumph and disaster in the kitchen – fuel for running adventures

Foodie Penpals February 2014

Thanks to Sue Luff of the parish of Kent for a truly brilliant parcel.

Foodie Penpal Parcel February 2014

1. Sea Salt Chocolate Caramel flavour Hampton popcorn. All gone already! As Susan predicted, this was a hit with Mr B. He loves salted caramel anyway and we are both popcorn fiends (ask my poor work colleague who has to watch me scraping the last bits of popcorn dandruff out of the packet)

2. Protein Balls – Susan’s own recipe. These went pretty much straight away as I’m running to work most days. The fuelled at least 3 PB’s. Down to 1 hr 6m 11s for my 8.3m run now.

3. Food doctor pouch. Perfect for shoving in my rucksack to take to work.

4. Mocha drink mix. It’s hot, it’s chocolate, it’s coffee…..win. I haven’t opened it yet as I’m forcing myself to finish another pack first but I’m looking forward to it.

5. Last but by no means least the intriguing liquid salt. So far I’ve used this to season a bolognese. I’m not certain how much spice it added as I was being cautious but I want to try it on its own as a seasoning to really get the taste. Love the idea of it.

Started by The Lean Green Bean, Foodie penpals is a way for food bloggers and blog readers to get to know each other, via a lovely parcel in the mail every month. This is Rock Salt has brought it to the UK and Europe. Here’s the rough outline of how it works:

All interested parties in the UK and Europe – bloggers and blog readers alike – sign up by the form available at the bottom of the Terms and Conditions post

Participants are matched on the 5th of the month

Penpals send thoughtful, food related parcels, on or before the 20th of the month. The parcels can include home baked treats, shop bought treats (especially local or unusual things), cake cases or decorations – use your imagination. The parcel must include something hand written – a note explaining the box’s contents, a recipe card, whatever you like. The price limit for the boxes is £10 – this is a limit, the point is not the cost, but the thought (no, really!)

Penpals open their boxes and rejoice!

At the end of the month, everyone blogs about their box, or writes a guest blog post if they are usually a blog reader and not writer. Everyone reads one another’s posts and rejoices some more. Posts are made available on Lindsay’s blog so we can all find each other easily